Monday, January 13, 2014

Christmas and New Years Recap

It's time for a Thomas Family Christmas Re-Cap!

Christmas this year (2013) was great. Both boys are at the age right now where they get it, they get Santa Claus, they get the whole thing. And Will and I are at the point now where we are getting very excited on Christmas Eve to get things all set up and ready.

But first, Christmas Eve...

My parents and us obtained tickets to the Ensign Symphony's Christmas Eve concert at Benaroya Hall. This is something new we haven't done before, but thought it would be a great thing to do.

My mom and spent the morning getting our Christmas Eve feast all ready so that when we got home from the concert later that night we just had to warm it all up and then could eat...

The boys in the backseat of Grandpa's truck on the way to Seattle...

Taylor is very scared of riding in "alligators" (elevators)...

We found our box seats on the 2nd tier!

Just a little note - sitting on any of the tiers is a bit scary with children because the railing is not very high. My anxiety over watching our children and making sure they weren't leaning over too far was pretty high. Haha.

Normally kids are not allowed at Benaroya Hall concerts, but as this was a family concert on Christmas Eve kids could be there. It was weird to hear babies crying all over the auditorium, and we could hear it VERY well because the sound in there is incredible. Taylor had to go out into the hallway several times because he was too wiggly and loud. But Grandpa enjoyed the time with him.

After dinner, we opened up all the presents from both sets of Grandparents. G&G Thomas got the boys new PJs, books, and a few other things. G&G Southworth gave the boys new blankets, I got a music stand, and Will got a photography book and a gift certificate to have a photography outing with my dad.

After my parents went home, Jack the Elf gave the boys one last thing for Christmas and said his farewells until next year...

And then Will and I stayed up getting ready for Christmas. I finished wrapping a few gifts and stuffing the stockings. Will put together Preston's new art desk, and also finding all of the parts and putting together Preston's old McQueen bed (for Taylor). I made it to bed around midnight, but Will was up until 2:30 am.

The boys were so excited to discover their gifts. It was very cute, when Preston saw his old McQueen bed he said "Hey that's my old bed...all for YOU Taylor!" . What a good kid, totally willing to give up his old bed for his brother.

This picture is really sweet because it is a shot of Taylor opening the gift that Preston picked out for him (and paid for with the $5 G&G Thomas sent him). He is so excited to see Taylor open it...(he also wrapped it himself).

My maternity PJ's that said "When I say backrub, I mean BACKRUB." A little pregnancy humor for you.

The only sad thing about Christmas morning was that Preston was still battling a tummy bug. He wasn't even excited to come downstairs at first. He asked me to get him a banana while he ate it at the top of the stairs, completely pail in the face.

A little while later after the boys had played with their Santa gifts, he told us he needed to throw up. Will went and got a bowl for him just in time for him to throw up in it. Poor guy threw up twice Christmas morning but then he was fine.

A tradition I grew up with is having Pilsbury Orange Cinnamon Rolls on Christmas morning, so we did that...

The boys got all of the RescueBots for Christmas and were very excited about that.

I got a new blender. I had used our old one out practically. I mean it still works, but it was too small for the amount of smoothie I was making and the blades need replacing. Will got me a Ninja and it is much bigger and better. :)

Will also resurrected my love-letter book and wrote me the greatest letter in it. It was just what I needed. I love him so much. It was better than any physical gift.

I got Will a SonicCare toothbrush, an electric nose hair trimmer, and a digital picture frame for his desk at work.

The rest of Christmas morning was spent like this....while the boys played with their toys. It was heaven.

The boys and Will also had a really fun time playing with the puzzles they got from their cousins....

And watching RescueBots while reinacting it with their new action figures...

The new few days were filled with all-day pajamas, food, goodies, relaxing, and playing toys.

Finally, on the 29th, I decided I was done with Christmas decorations and wanted to clean up our house and all of the mess. Preston was my helper and we took down all of the ornaments off the tree, around the house, and even hauled the Christmas tree outside.

Preston got his plane for Christmas and only 10 min of playing with it, and Taylor got a hold of it and broke it. He was so sad. Taylor bought a new one for him out of his allowance.

On New Years Eve we were originally invited to go to some friends house for a party, but the boys were very sick with a chest cold. So we stayed in for the night. I made some yummy nachos, we had sparkling cider. It was not a very exciting night though. The boys went to bed early, and Will and I were in bed just before midnight as well watching movies.

I was up most of the night feeling nauseous like I needed to throw up but never did. Instead I got to FEEL like I wanted to and hang out near the toilet all night long. I didn't get much sleep. The funny thing is that was how I spent New Years Eve the year before too....except that I really was barfing. Note to self: Watch what you eat on New Years from now on.

New Years DAY we went to Leavenworth to see the Christmas town before they took everything down. It was pretty cold but the boys had a LOT of fun!

Other Random Events....

Taylor got a hold of a bottle of baby powder...

Taylor experienced his very first Sunday in Primary and also gave his first talk as well. The kid was not afraid at all and was very excited about the microphone (he must take after me??).

However, behaving in CLASS is an entirely different story. Last week (his first Sunday), he was, uh, not so good. Hitting kids, not obeying, etc. So yesterday we kept a watchful eye on him and tried desperately to get him to take a nap before going to Primary. It kind of stinks because our new church time is at 1pm right during Taylor's normal nap. And he does NOT do well without a nap.

He did get a little snoozer during Sacrament meeting, and so he went to primary a little bit late. We left him and then Will went back 15 min later to check on him, and found that he was doing "fake sneezes" and getting the entire primary to laugh at him. And since it was ward conference where the stake primary presidency was trying to teach a special lesson to everyone, well, he was quite disruptive. So Will removed him and brought him into Sunday School with us until he was calmed down a bit. And then Will took him back to his class and kept an eye on him.

Oiye. This is going to take some work. Yes, our kid is THAT kid. The one who is crazy.

The boys had fun pretending they had babies in their tummies. Exactly when do I break the news that they can't have babies? haha....

I am now 30 weeks along, and time is ticking! This baby will make his appearance in 9 weeks or less!

My mom came last Friday and helped me clean out and arrange a corner in my music studio for the baby.

We have a small home with only 3 bedrooms (the other two which are the boys room and the master). We had previously talked about turning my studio into the 3rd baby's room and then building me a separate studio by our garage. But since this baby has turned out to be another boy, we are just eventually going to transition him into sharing the boys room with them (can we say bunk beds?!).

So for now, this will be his crib space where he'll have a quiet area to take all those baby naps that he is going to need.....

Lots of time and work went into this. My neighbor Catherine also helped out. Lots of things were put into bins and put in the garage, my concert dresses were squished into our master closet (barely!), and everything was pulled out and reorganized. All the baby clothes were taken out, folded and put away. And by the way, we discovered all of our newborn baby boy clothes are summer clothes! Haha! We have never had a winter baby before. I may need to go and pick up a few newborn long-sleeved shirts...

Afterwards we went and got hot fudge sundaes from McDonalds...

And the boys were very excited that Taylor was finally going to sleep in the McQeen toddler bed (the crib was moved to the music studio)....

By the way, we have white wayne's coating that will eventually go on the walls we just haven't had time to install it yet....(that is why the walls are only painted halfway down)

Here I was before church yesterday - hitting the big milestone 30 weeks! Woohoo!

I have definitely been experiencing the baby's growth spurts lately. Last week was very hard in particular. My stomach felt very stretched to the max and hurt really bad. And now I feel like I'm hungry ALL the time.

I'm still making it to the gym though...

This is a comparison of me with my 2nd pregnancy (on left) at 28 weeks, and my current 3rd pregnancy on right at 29 weeks. It's nice to see I am keeping in better shape this time around....

At the doctor's getting my routine rhogam shot.

We had a big windstorm this past weekend and spent a lot of time with no power and having electronics-free time together as a family. Will was at scout camp for part of it and when he came home and found us with no power, I had a fire going in the fireplace and candles lit. He said "Did YOU start the fire?" ahahaha he was surprised I did it. His first thought was that I had called someone over to start it for me. Nope I did it myself! :)

It was hard to convince the boys that DVD players and TVs do not in fact take batteries though. Ha.

A Little About Us...

Hi there. We're the Thomas Family.

There's Will - who loves number crunching, real estate, & investing. He's also an ultra-marathoner and adventure racer.

Then there's Jenni - she is a stay-at-home-mom, concert pianist, recording artist, and composer. She loves fashion, decorating, and blogging. She has kept journals since the age of 11, so blogging is like ultra-journalling :).

And of course there's our little redheads, Preston, (born 6/2008), Taylorwho was born 8/2010, and our newest addition Riley, born 3/14.

We live near Seattle. We drive Kias We work hard and play hard. We are extremists in our hobbies. We're Mormons. We eat meat. And we love the outdoors.

What's Will been up to?

Links

"We write to taste life twice, once in the moment and in retrospection."

- Anais Nin

Taylor

Preston

Will and Jenni

Inspiring Message

Why Will Runs

"We write because we're human. And we have stories to tell. Stories of love, of romance, of heroic struggles. We write because deep within us we must tell our stories, lest they (and the memory of "us") be lost to the winds of time. We write because we want to leave a legacy, a memory, in order that others may know that we had passed this way, and that we had lived. Thus we write as a witness to our lives -- for ourselves and for posterity." - Kenneth Tang